Compiled by: CoolFish
Source: Binance Square Live AMA
Broadcast Date: February 12, 2026 (Eastern Time)
Key Summary
In this live AMA, Binance founder CZ had an in-depth exchange with the community on topics such as Meme coin investment strategies, market cycle predictions, the impact of regulatory bills, advice for developers, and personal values. CZ emphasized that while he cannot predict short-term market fluctuations, he is very confident in the long-term development of the crypto industry. He also shared his views on RWA, Agents, the integration with AI, and his personal future focus in detail.
Highlights
- Meme Coin Investment Advice: The longevity of Meme coins depends on their strong cultural elements and follower base. Ordinary investors should be cautious and not blindly follow the trend.
- Market Cycles and Policy: The market is influenced by many factors and is hard to predict, but the new U.S. administration's support for cryptocurrency is a positive signal.
- Advice for Developers: Ignore short-term price fluctuations and focus on building applications with practical utility. Maintain a steady stream of product updates and communicate fully with the community.
- On Regulation: Regulation that provides clarity is good. Although bills may involve compromises, establishing a framework and having the ability to iterate is crucial for the industry.
- Personal Wealth and Motivation: CZ stated that he does not focus on money but values health, family, and positive contributions to society more. He is currently channeling his energy into meaningful projects like Giggle Academy.
- Industry Trends: RWA (Real World Asset tokenization) is an important trend; the integration of AI and cryptocurrency, with payments being the fastest to implement.
- Dealing with FUD: The best way is to ignore it, protect mental health by blocking out noise, and stay true to oneself.
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Cousin Wants Freedom: I have a simple question. Since Binance now supports Meme tokens on-chain, and we often buy many Meme tokens, but you mentioned in a tweet that those FOMO-driven, wordplay-type memes are bound to lose money. So how should we ordinary people play with these Meme coins, or how can we play them well?
CZ: I once tweeted that if you buy all the meme coins created based on my tweets, you are almost certainly doomed to lose money. I think people might interpret this differently, perhaps overinterpreting it. Many people create meme coins based on my tweets. If you buy all of them, you won't succeed. I'm not a great meme coin trader. I don't know what the right strategy is for those who profit from meme coins. But if you buy all the meme coins created based on my tweets, you will definitely lose money; I think that's certain. People might distort this point.
But I think if you are a Meme coin trader, you must develop your own strategy. I don't know what the right strategy is, but I believe for a Meme coin to last, it must have very strong cultural elements. If you look at some enduring coins, like Dogecoin, Floki, etc., they have lasted a long time because they have a very strong follower base. New meme coins are riskier. So I would advise that if you're not sure what to do, basically, don't touch it unless you know what you're doing. I'm not an expert in this area.
AB Kuai.Dong: I'd like to ask, regarding this bear market, how long do you personally think it will last? Where is the market's turning point? After all, compared to 2022, this doesn't seem like a full bear market; stablecoins and prediction markets appear very prosperous.
CZ: I think this is difficult. First, no one can predict the market; you can't predict it, and I can't predict it either. I don't have a crystal ball to see the future. This market involves many players and many factors: national policies, taxes between countries, a company launching a stablecoin, another person creating a prediction market—many players are involved. No one can predict what everyone will do.
But overall, (looking at history at least) it has a roughly four-year cycle. But will it this time? This time there are many differences, so whether it will definitely follow this cycle is also hard to say.
This time, the U.S. is very supportive of digital currency. The new U.S. government and market are very supportive, and now they continuously have bills passing, which should be very positive. If the U.S. supports it this much, other countries will follow. As you mentioned, stablecoins, RWA, etc., are actually developing very quickly now.
On the other hand, there is more noise in the community, more FUD, which actually has a certain negative impact on market sentiment. So which factors will ultimately have an effect, no one can say for sure. I think everyone still needs to carefully assess their own risks and operate accordingly.
To be honest, I've said a lot, but it's like I haven't answered. I can't see it clearly either. But overall, I think there are both positive and negative forces at play now. However, I believe in the long run, this industry is definitely be fine. What will happen tomorrow, next week, or next month is hard to predict, so I can't predict that either.
King Bro: CZ, what impact do you think the Clarity Act will have?
CZ: To be honest, I don't know much about the Clarity Act. I've read AI interpretations of it, so I think you might not want to take my advice on this. But overall, I think any regulation that provides clarity is good. Judging from the heated discussions I've seen, this is likely a very nuanced, heavily negotiated bill. Who won? I don't know. Are there flaws or limitations? Probably, there are likely many compromises in the bill. But this is a first draft, right? Having a framework first, then the ability to iterate and improve, would be great for the cryptocurrency industry. So I think overall it's very positive. This is my intuition, but I'm not a regulatory or legal expert, especially not in U.S. law and bills, so you'd better ask other experts.
Kevin: I'm from Indonesia. My question is: Given the current quite negative market sentiment, what do you think projects like BNB Chain and its ecosystem should focus on to truly drive industry development, rebuild confidence, and fuel sustainable long-term growth?
CZ: I think for developers in the industry, you should ignore the market, whether it's going up or down. In the long run, the market will grow; in the long run, Bitcoin will perform well, and major cryptocurrencies will perform well. I think most major blockchains today will perform well.
As a developer, you shouldn't worry about daily prices; you should develop applications that people use. Whether people use an application is not based on your token's price but on the specific utility your product provides, whether it's a wallet, trading, stablecoins for payments, some tokenized assets, or other applications.
Anything you develop that people will use, they will use long-term. As a developer, you shouldn't worry too much about the market in the short term. However, if you have issued a token, you should try to maintain a steady stream of product updates so your token holders are very aware of your activities and your roadmap. This way, people can better assess the risks and opportunities of holding your token, and you should communicate frequently with your community. This is my advice. So far, the projects I'm related to are following this advice, and most are doing very well.
Link: I want to ask a question about Square. First, as bloggers on Square, we are happy to see the team investing energy here, and we've noticed you yourself have started posting independent content on Square. Bloggers often discuss privately that we all hope our content can be more diverse, so users don't just open Binance for trading but are also willing to browse Square in their leisure time, finding it interesting. So, does this direction of content that isn't limited to crypto but covers more areas align with Square's future strategic plan?
CZ: First, I don't actually manage Binance's products, and I don't manage Square's products either; I am actually a user of Square. Actually, I have a problem now: there isn't a place where I can see a very complete feed of news, not just crypto news, but news from the whole world. China used to have some news feeds that were actually very good, but I haven't seen them recently. I think there should be a place where you can clearly see today's 10, 20, or 30 news items, and it should be relatively neutral, etc. I think Binance Square has the potential to provide this.
Second, as you said, it should be a place for everyone to chat, not necessarily all about blockchain, and blockchain involves many other industries, including the AI industry, various tax negotiations between countries—these will all have an impact. So I think Square should be like this. I hope it can become such a product. But from a product perspective, its maturity is still not enough. Including this livestream, this one is much smoother than the last one; the last livestream was very laggy. So they still have a lot of performance issues to fix.
Actually, this livestream is also a performance test, so this time is already much smoother than last time. I think the product first needs to have strong performance; it needs to be very good, very smooth, not laggy, and then add new features later. So I think the Square product will continue to iterate.
Link: So my understanding just now was: as a suggestion, you think that if we bloggers want to make better content, on one hand, we can focus on verticalized daily news summaries around the crypto field, and on the other hand, we can also try to expand into other topics like AI, not limited to crypto itself. Is that your suggestion?
CZ: It should be a platform where everyone can see very high-quality content, and high-quality content should be promoted. Current social media has too much messy content; sometimes it's interesting, but the quality is not high. Additionally, many news media are not truthful. So刚好 (just right) with the Square platform, I think it's a very good opportunity.
Question: Everyone sees you as the richest person in the cryptocurrency field. I think people often count all of Binance's funds under your name and pretend it's your personal wealth, but we all know that's not true.
However, you have indeed achieved great success. I think you have done very well and made a lot of money in this industry. So, why are you still persisting with this? Why are you still here? I want to know the reason behind it.
CZ: People often confuse Binance's user assets with Binance's corporate assets or my personal wealth. First, I think I am relatively comfortable, but I don't really focus on money. And I've been through a lot; I think most people, after going through all this, would realize what is important to them and what is not. First, I think health is very important, family is very important, meaningful connections, meaningful experiences are very important, and making a positive contribution to society, to this world. At least for me, this is important; it makes me feel good. I don't do these things for other reasons but for "selfish" reasons: doing things that have a positive impact on the world makes me feel good myself. I believe we are genetically selected; any animal tends to help its own kind because those that don't are less competitive and are usually eliminated by evolution. So I think genetically, we are selected to want to help our own kind and want to leave the world better than we found it, right? We want to make a positive contribution, and when we do, we feel a very strong internal reward; this makes me happy, so I do it. And I am also very happy, especially after going through those things; I now cherish some simple joys in life.
I think I am also in a rather fortunate position. I have enough resources to do impactful things; I have enough talent, team, and funds to do things, and I also have time. I'm not very young, but I'm not very old either; I have the ability to do these things. At my age, few people have the luxury to do whatever they want freely.
Furthermore, Binance has been running very well without me for the past two to two and a half years, and this situation should continue. This frees me up to do other things, like Giggle Academy, communicating with national leaders to advance cryptocurrency—all these things are actually very difficult to do if you are a CEO managing a company full-time. I feel very lucky to be in this position. I am healthy, so I feel I need to do something meaningful. Skiing is great, but I can't ski forever; I can ski for a few days, a season, or a month, but I can't ski for 30 days straight; that's too much. I still have to do something meaningful. This is my drive.
Question: The next question extends slightly from the previous one. You have mentioned Ray Dalio's "Principles" on multiple occasions in different settings. I want to ask, Binance grew very quickly in a highly volatile and challenging environment. Which principle was the most difficult for you to follow in real life? Have you ever compromised to protect the company?
CZ: I'm not sure which specific principle you are referring to, but I wrote a blog listing all the principles; there were about 30 or 40. I'll pick a simple but interesting one. I think the hardest principle to follow is actually how to save time. Many people know saving time is important; time is more precious than money. You only have so many hours in a day; it cannot be scaled. You can delegate tasks, hire teams, but you still only have 24 hours a day. And there are all kinds of meetings and things that are hard to refuse out of politeness, so it's very time-consuming.
For example, some senior person says, "Can you have a meeting with my friend? He is so-and-so." Then you think: Should I attend that meeting? What do they want to talk about? Saving time by acting "impolitely" is one of the more difficult things to do; I am quite aggressive about it now. But even I sometimes worry about whether I will offend the other party. But I think for most people, if unfortunately asks to borrow a thousand dollars, they would be very shy and polite; but when they say "Hey, can I take a few minutes of your time to talk," which usually means half an hour to an hour, they are not worried or shy at all. Most people in the world don't come to you and say, "I want to take strictly five minutes of your time, I want to talk about points one, two, and three, this is what I want." Then you can say, "I don't want to have this meeting" or "This won't happen." If it were just a five-minute exchange, it would be over. Most people are not that efficient. How to push everyone around you to be that efficient is very problematic; it's actually very difficult.
Basically, people will think you are a rude person—I won't use strong language here. So I think this might be one of the hardest things to do among my principles. But it is also the most effective thing. If you can do it well, you can really optimize your time, and the people around you will become very, very efficient, which will also make you more efficient. This actually contributes greatly to success.
Other principles, like a strong work ethic, protecting users and user assets no matter what happens. These things are actually easier. In my career, when we built Binance, anything involving user assets, we were extremely protective of. So, even though these things are difficult, because the principles are so firm, they are actually easier to execute. The time issue is something many people want to be polite about but don't protect their time enough.
Ahem: I am a loyal holder of BNB and Aster. Recently, Aster has risen significantly, even surpassing the platform coins of competitors. How do you view BNB ecosystem projects surpassing other platforms' platform coins? What is the future prospect of Aster?
CZ: I won't comment on other platforms first. I think we should focus on doing our own things. My advice to all my ecosystem projects, or all projects I am related to and can advise, is: focus on our projects, we don't discuss others, we don't look at others. If others have good aspects in their products, we learn from them; if others have good values, we also learn from them; if others have strong teams, we also poach people. But we only look at ourselves; as long as we make our products well, that's enough. So ultimately, it's the product; you need to make good products that people use; other things are not that important, and other things should not be analyzed.
Also, don't be especially happy just because the coin price is slightly higher than others, and don't be especially sad if the coin price is lower than others. This is a very long-term持久战 (protracted war); everyone can relax their mood a bit, no need to make横向比较 (horizontal comparisons) daily. Of course, many people in the community will do this, but sometimes it's okay to post about it. But from my perspective, that stuff is more for entertainment and fun. Those things are not that important, not that serious. In the long term, long-term wins are the real wins. In the long term, serving users well, protecting users' funds, and allowing users to use all the functions your product provides with the lowest price, fastest speed, and best user experience. This is the most important. So everything else is noise; everything else need not be worried about.
Question: I want to ask if you can share your latest views on Aster, as well as Aster's competition and the upcoming Aster Chain. We have discussed the importance of privacy and blockchain speed many times in the past.
CZ: First, I am only an advisor to Aster. They have a team operating it; Leonard and the team are very aggressive and excellent. Relatively speaking, they started late, so there is quite a bit of catching up to do. But I believe the team is strong, which is why I voluntarily became an advisor. I also think the Perp DEX (Perpetual Decentralized Exchange) track is very large, not yet settled; we are just beginning. I think this track will still exist in 10, 20, 50 years. Whether the current players will be the final winners, who knows, but the current strong players clearly have a good chance. I support them very much and want to help as much as I can.
I think the new blockchain about to be launched is interesting. Perp DEX blockchain has many technical challenges; it's not as simple as people think. It's also interesting to see different players in this track going in different directions. Some pursue so-called transparency, where you can see everything; some want to protect the privacy of people's trades. I think it's good to see different players trying different routes. It is not yet clear which way will become the最终被广泛采用的方式 (widely adopted way) in the end, or whether multiple platforms can succeed. So I am basically their off-field cheerleader, trying to cheer for them. I have high expectations for them.
Peter: I am Peter from Talex, an MVB8 project on BNB Chain. I'll be brief. Recently, He Yi and Binance initiated a great event called the "Binance AI Short Drama Contest," aimed at combating FUD and seeking truth. We strongly support it and also hope to amplify the impact of this matter in a special way, not just posting videos on platform X like a regular event—after all, that kind of exposure is limited. Currently, no one has ventured into the content prediction market direction, so I'd like to hear your opinion. For example, we can predict the popularity of content and "bet" based on that. The method is simple: pay to unlock the full content—say, pay for the paid episodes of the Binance AI short drama. There is no "yes or no" binary outcome here, but an infinite distribution of fund flow: between those who discover the content early and pay, and newly joined users, forming a kind of收益流转 (profit flow), because content spreads slowly through word of mouth and becomes popular.
What do you think of this "content prediction market" model? Especially in the current environment, where more and more people are using Seedance 2.0 to produce high-quality videos and post them on X, will this model make it easier to find product-market fit?
CZ: This is the first time I've heard of a content prediction market; I haven't thought deeply about it. I don't know how you monetize it or how you determine the final value of an event or prediction. For event prediction, the outcome is usually 0 or 1, or a value between 0 and 100, and the winner takes the loser's money. In a content model, I don't know if there is a ceiling. There was discussion before; I think Yzi Labs incubated a project that tokenized opinions. But then again, everyone can have an opinion; how do you determine the final value? So that project eventually pivoted. This sounds somewhat similar. I need to study its token economics and financial model further. But I do think the content economy using cryptocurrency is coming; it's a huge field. You can see in this livestream, people have already donated $12,000, and it's still going. I think this crypto content economy will be huge; we haven't fully developed it yet. Current media are not highly regarded by the crypto circle because they tend to be biased and no longer neutral; while social media is difficult to monetize. Although you can monetize on X, it's still limited. We are still in the early stages of the content economy world, and cryptocurrency can play an important role.
Ekowreel: Do you foresee platforms like Binance Square evolving into a monetization model similar to YouTube in the future, where creators can earn revenue from video content but in a Web3 native way (such as involving project tokens or on-chain incentives)? Do you think Binance Square will become the Web3 version of YouTube?
CZ: I don't manage Binance Square, but I think it is already moving in that direction. Binance Square already allows content creators to monetize. I think I just saw recently that we have an official Binance Square account here; I don't know who is behind it, or which intern, maybe you can talk more about it. I think there is already, for example, a 50% commission split or something like that.
Official staff added: Currently, Binance Square has two monetization models: The first is the trader path,即 (i.e.) "Write to Earn," where you can get up to 50% commission; the second is the creator path, where you can participate in project方 (party) activities and create content for them, receiving project tokens based on quality. These are the main monetization methods currently.
Question: How can the Chinese community present a responsible, innovative, and warm community image to the world? To better go global and compete on the international stage with international representatives? As a senior who has long been building the BNB ecosystem, can you give us some advice?
CZ: This question is a bit grand. First, I cannot represent the Chinese community, or I cannot represent such a large group. I speak Chinese, but my Chinese is not particularly standard either. I think it's like this: From my personal perspective, I only speak Chinese and English, so I hope both communities will be strong and will become better. Within the languages I can speak, I will continue to support and promote them. I believe I have promoted quite a bit of Chinese content in the English X community. Of course, perhaps I could promote even more. We actually already push to the point where many foreigners say I speak Chinese too much, but I think for me, others complaining is not my problem; I push both languages.
Also, the Chinese community is large. Chinese people can sometimes compete too fiercely internally. Including actually recently, a lot of this fake news, etc., I think are done by Chinese competitors or友商 (friendly businesses). So I think our Chinese community is not united enough. Actually, if we really want to, everyone should be more united, make the international influence of Chinese greater; this would be better. But often everyone is not of one heart; I can't do anything about this. So I think this vision is very good, and I very much support it, but what I see now is that it seems still quite difficult to achieve. I think we should focus on how to make Chinese communities, Chinese platforms, Chinese projects, Chinese coins, etc., all better, rather than互相在这边互相拆台或者互相攻击 (undermining or attacking each other here). Undermining is one thing, but meaningless attacks against each other are completely unnecessary.
Jason Daily Web3: Where do you think the real focus of capital and developers will be in the next two or three years? What early signals should the ecosystem pay attention to?
CZ: This is also a difficult question, a predictive question; my predictions are likely to be wrong. But I think RWAs (Real World Assets) are getting a lot of attention now. Based on my conversations, every country I talk to wants to tokenize its own assets. Because for a country, tokenizing assets can provide immediate funding; when people want to redeem the tokens in the future, then ship the physical goods out. And tokens will create an economic ecosystem around such assets, and supporting infrastructure can also be built around these assets. For example, gold—many countries actually have untapped gold reserves. Some countries are talking about rare earth mines, even salt, water. Many countries have优质的高山泉水 (high-quality mountain spring water), right? For example, Kyrgyzstan has abundant water resources.
I don't know if everyone realizes, nowadays每升饮用水通常比油贵 (a liter of drinking water is often more expensive than oil). If water resources can be tokenized, considerable income can be created. So I think tokenization of real-world assets will become an important trend. As for the specific time it will explode, whether this year or next year, I'm not sure. Prediction markets themselves are an art; some directions are more obvious, but I could also be wrong. Usually, there will always be some completely unexpected dark horses emerging from the边缘 (fringes) and becoming unstoppable.
Bi Du: How do you view whether DEXs will also face compliance issues like CEXs now in the next three to five years? If so, at what point do you think it will happen?
CZ: Today's questions are all quite difficult. First, I am not a compliance expert. Second, compliance is not that simple; every country is different, hard to predict. Look at the U.S.: a year and a half or two years ago, it might have been hard to predict that the U.S. would be so positive now. DEXs also have varying degrees of decentralization; some are very decentralized, some have fewer nodes. Spot DEXs, perpetual DEXs, etc., also have differences. It's hard to say exactly how it will develop.
But I think the overall industry trend is that communication is increasing. I think many countries may not even have figured out how to regulate CEXs yet; they are still discussing it. I think that is the first step; later it will come to DEXs. So this question is difficult to answer; I don't have an accurate answer.
Crypto Warehouse: Do you think stablecoins have stolen Bitcoin's thunder in the current U.S. administration? Where do you think the current U.S. interest lies?
CZ: I don't know the U.S. particularly well. And the U.S. is a large country with many participants, different people. But based on my limited understanding, the《Genius Act》was passed last year, about six or seven months ago. This provides a lot of compliance clarity for how to conduct stablecoin business in the U.S., which is a very positive signal. At the same time, it also has a driving effect on other countries globally.
I think everyone is also discussing; now we often see news about the《Clarity Act》; hope it can also pass smoothly. I think a government supportive of cryptocurrency will allow this industry to develop rapidly in that country. This is the future industry of money; it will help upgrade the country's monetary system and give that country a leading position in the financial system. The U.S. is already leading in traditional finance (like Wall Street); if it can adopt this new technology earlier than other countries, it will gain a greater leading advantage.
This is good for the crypto industry and beneficial for the rest of the world. But for other countries, I think the important thing is to keep up, embrace it early, introduce friendly regulations, attract talent, attract industry participants—simply put, attract the entire industry. So overall, I think this is a good trend. I don't know much, I'm not good at detailed analysis, and I can't answer this question特别精准 (particularly accurately). But I think what the U.S. is doing for cryptocurrency currently is great for the world.
Question: AI is developing rapidly, and large-scale applications are increasing. BNB Chain's roadmap for 2025 has an "AI First" including promoting AI integration and providing AI tools. What do you think are the real landing directions for the combination of AI and the crypto industry? What kind of AI applications can truly stay and be popular?
CZ: I think first, AI is developing fast; second, blockchain is also developing quite fast. How these two industries combine, everyone is still in the trial stage. There isn't a super app yet that fully combines both. But as AI capabilities增强 (strengthen), whether it's using AI, AI payments, or AI data training, they will integrate with digital currency. I think payments should be the fastest to land, but it's still early. If you look further out, like two, three, five, or even ten years, there will be成千上万个智能体 (thousands upon thousands of智能体 (Agents)), and there will be payment relationships between them, basically肯定都是数字货币 (definitely using digital currency). Many will be cross-border, high-frequency, small-amount payments,大概率都会通过区块链和加密货币来结算 (most likely settled through blockchain and cryptocurrency).
Evgeniy: I remember you tweeted at the market bottom saying "They want to buy cheaper." Two questions: Is the current situation similar to the previous bottom? Who did you mean by "they"?
CZ: I don't know how to answer these two questions. I don't think I tweeted "This is the market bottom"; I usually don't say such things, and I don't know when the bottom is. I also don't know who "they" refers to. I think no one knows exactly where the bottom or top is; anyone who claims to know is just guessing. The market works in a peculiar way with so many participants; anyone's actions can have a chain reaction.
_Ram: Thank you, CZ. You haven't been the formal CEO since 2023, but your voice still carries significant weight. How do you balance the freedom to speak freely with the responsibility to the ecosystem?
CZ: I don't think this needs balancing. I don't manage Binance. I am a believer in free speech, and I will continue to do so. I live most of my time in countries with free speech, and I am active on social media. I don't think this affects other things. Whether people think my words carry weight or not won't change how I speak; I just be myself. Sometimes someone suggests, "There is a lot of FUD about you now; maybe you should stay quiet." I say no, I don't want to do that; then the FUD would have worked. I don't let others change my behavior. I express my views, do what I think is best, and interact with the community in a way I deem appropriate and helpful. This is what I do; I don't want to change anything.
Question: I am more concerned about the issue of CEX and DEX. Do you think there will be more competition between CEX and DEX next, or will they integrate? What kind of users will choose CEX or DEX?
CZ: I think they will coexist for a long time. Currently, they serve two distinctly different types of users. DEX requires you to operate a wallet directly, and protecting wallet security is a special skill today. Most people cannot protect their own wallets. If you want to trade on a DEX, you need a secure computer; you can't just download files or open pictures sent by friends, otherwise, if you get infected, the wallet is in danger. This is completely different from users who use CEX (via email, password, and customer support). Additionally, current cryptocurrency adoption is still low; globally, maybe only 8-10% of people own some cryptocurrency, and its assets usually account for less than 10%. For most ordinary people, non-technical people, their first contact with cryptocurrency will usually be through a centralized exchange (CEX). As they become more experienced, they may move to DEX. But currently, among early adopters in crypto, there are many tech geeks; this group is more likely to move to DEX. For the masses, moving to DEX is still very difficult now, but tools will improve over time. Hopefully, in the future, it will be easy for non-technical people to hold crypto. Currently, DEX product services are still quite fragmented; swapping, lending, wealth management might be in different places. Hopefully, in the future, self-custody wallets like TrustWallet can handle all of this. I don't think there is real competition currently; the market is large enough to accommodate thousands of CEXs and DEXs. This is a long answer.
Entamoty: I want to ask for your看法 (views) on the role of emerging markets (especially Africa) in driving the next phase of crypto adoption. How does Binance plan to support African innovators through initiatives like the YZi Labs incubation program?
CZ: I think among all crypto platforms, Binance's investment and presence in Africa are probably the largest. The entire ecosystem, including myself, has invested tremendous effort in Africa; I have visited over 12 African countries. From the early days until now, my idea has always been: we just want to get as many people into crypto as possible. Frankly, the overall per capita GDP in Africa is lower than other continents, so the business return, income level from doing business in Africa is indeed lower compared to other places. I believe this is also the main reason many platforms don't focus on Africa.
But I have always firmly believed that if we can get the entire African continent involved, their economic power will grow随之 (accordingly), and after a few years, business returns will naturally appear. Moreover, Africa has a very unique opportunity: extremely low banking coverage, I remember it's less than 11%. At the same time, smartphone penetration is rising rapidly. This basically means people here don't need to go through the traditional banking stage; they can leap directly into the crypto world—this is exactly what we are seeing. So I think for any crypto business or crypto platform, this is a golden opportunity.
Also, from the early days, Binance Labs has invested quite a bit in Africa. We had an investment director who lived in Africa for a long time; he has now left to start his own business, but he was on the team for several years, and for a period of time, he was specifically focused on the African market. So we have indeed done a lot and want to do more. From the perspective of BSC Chain and Binance Labs, we very much hope to increase investment in Africa and also hope more people can come together to do this.
Question: CZ, regarding FUD and noise, how do you handle it daily?
CZ: The best way is not to handle it. Sometimes you still need to do some simple clarification because many people are not used to this level of noise and sometimes believe it. But other than that, my advice is to ignore it. For those who spread FUD, I reduce the noise by blocking or muting. Muting is better because they don't know, and it's out of sight, out of mind for me. I am also careful not to accidentally block those providing genuine feedback. Many simple people get carried away. We welcome feedback, which is why I spend so much time on social media doing AMAs. But for those who intentionally spread false information, you just ignore them. The only people they can attract away are those who are not very smart, to put it bluntly, and you probably don't want those people on your platform anyway. Smart people will stay.
Data shows that the more they talk about you, the higher your exposure. Many users say they joined Binance because of the negative news and found the platform to be good. So I advise everyone to block out this noise; too much noise is not good for health. My emotions are very calm; noise doesn't bother me. Another saying: you are the average of the five people around you. By removing negative influences, your quality of life becomes better. I don't change myself because of external attacks; I be myself. So far, this strategy has worked in our favor: Binance's deposits, growth, and my Twitter followers are all increasing. We are not worried.
Question: Do you think a Crypto Winter is coming?
CZ: I don't know. Markets have cycles; they fluctuate. And everyone has a different definition of "winter." If you look at the Bitcoin price, it has fallen significantly from its all-time high; but is it better than a year and a half ago?
How do you define it? I don't know; even traditional markets like gold, silver also fluctuate significantly. But if you look long-term, the crypto industry will do well. Not every project will succeed; there will be many failures, but the excellent ones will stand out. For investors or traders, you need to learn to manage risk and understand that this is a high-volatility industry.
Nian Nian Community: CZ, what goals do you have for Giggle Academy this year, and will you participate in Giggle Academy courses held by the Nian Nian community anywhere in the world?
CZ: Because Nian Nian has a token, I generally have to avoid it slightly; I generally会稍微避免 (will slightly avoid) activities that already have a community token. But I want to say thank you very much to the Nian Nian community for their support of Giggle. Also, I want to同步一下 (synchronize/update) everyone: Giggle Academy's meeting today indicated that there are already over 150,000 registered users.
But there are实在太多 (really too many) meetings;一直没来得及 (haven't had time to announce it). This is a fairly important milestone, after all, they just broke through 100,000 a few months ago, and the growth rate is indeed accelerating.
At the same time, they are also vigorously polishing the product. Over the past few months, they have not added a lot of new content but have put a lot of effort into optimizing existing content, making the course experience smoother, more sticky, and supporting more languages, etc. So I think—I actually don't have any grand goals—this is a team of fifty or sixty people, steadily advancing, everyone is very passionate and works very hard.
Currently, they should be in the product tuning phase: they want the existing content to be extremely sticky, extremely fun, and have extremely good learning outcomes for children. Once this step is done, they will expand the content at a faster pace. Now they are tracking various data metrics daily, like next-day, 2-day, 7-day retention, conversion rates, completion rates, drop-out rates, etc., doing a lot of analysis in this area. All data are also rising; this is their current focus.
So the speed of content production has slowed down temporarily, but once this phase is over, the pace of content creation will speed up again, and they will apply various new AI technologies very quickly. Like recently, they have been playing with newly released video generation tools like Seedance 2.0, and the video quality produced is excellent; AI has made their work much easier.
My judgment is that Giggle Academy should be able to reach 1 million children this year, and in the next 5 to 10 years, this number could reach tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions. I think this is a very meaningful thing, I am genuinely happy for the team's progress, and I publicly give them a shout-out here.
